Stop me if you’ve heard this before. The Cleveland Cavaliers started strong, let go of the rope at the end of the first quarter, allowed their opponent to go on an extended run in the third, and needed Donovan Mitchell to lead a comeback victory. Except this time, Cleveland’s lack of defense in the fourth quarter made sure Mitchell didn’t have a chance to do so. The Cavs fell to the Chicago Bulls 127-111.
This was a competitive game heading into the fourth quarter. The Bulls pushed their lead to 13 in the third, but a nice 13-6 run to close the frame helped the Cavs shrink the deficit to seven heading into the fourth quarter. That was when things got out of hand.
Cleveland was completely run over in the final quarter. They went 9-23 from the field (39.1%), 3-10 from three, turned it over five times, and refused to play any defense. This added up to Chicago winning the final frame 32-23.
The Cavs are currently a bad team. Not that they aren’t living up to the standard of the 64-win team from last season. No, they’re just mediocre. There’s no way around it.
There’s no way of justifying these recent results. They’ve dropped seven of their last 10, and in one of those wins, they needed 48 points from Mitchell to get past the lowly Washington Wizards.
This time, the Cavs were outclassed by a Bulls team that had lost eight of its last nine games and was coming off a home loss to arguably the worst team in the league, the New Orleans Pelicans.
Even though the Bulls aren’t a good team, they have an identity. They play with pace. That’s an area Cleveland has struggled with all season.
The Bulls are at their best when they’re able to get out in transition. They’re one of the fastest teams in the league and do most of their offensive damage in the open court. The two easiest ways to get out in transition are to run off of turnovers and long rebounds from missed threes. The Cavs gave them plenty of opportunities to do both.
The Cavaliers turned it over 20 times, leading to 21 points off turnovers. Cleveland missed 27 threes as they went 12-39 (30.8%) from beyond the arc. They aren’t going to turn things around until they find their outside shot again.
Mitchell led the team with a game-high 32 points on 11-23 shooting to go along with five assists.
Jaylon Tyson added 21 points on 8-0 shooting with three assists and a steal. Darius Garland finished with 15 points on 6-16 shooting to go along with six assists. De’Andre Hunter had 12 points on 4-9 shooting in his first game off the bench.
The Bulls were led by Coby White’s 25 points. Josh Giddey supplied 23 points and 11 rebounds in the win.
The loss drops the Cavaliers to 15-13. They’ll get a chance to avenge this loss as they host the Chicago Bulls on Friday.
